Door-operating appliance



Sept 26, 1961 J. RoLLlT 3,001,223

DOOR-OPERATING APPLIANCE F'iled Sept. 16, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 25a Sale .19 lsb y. N i Joh n Ro l t'' l o Inventor By m4, M W4 9'- A ttorn ey Sept: V 26, 1961 I J. RoLLlTT DOOR-OPERATING APPLIANCE 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 16, 1957 Sept 26, 1951 J. RoLLlTT 3,001,223

DOOR-OPERATING APPLIANCE Filed Sept. 16, 1957 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 24 John Romft By M W9 l Attorneys United States Patent C DDR-OPERATING APPLIANCE John Rollitt, Copmanthorpe, York, England, assignor to Armstrong Patents Co. Limited, Beverley, England, a

British company Filed Sept. 16, 1957, Ser. No. 684,276

` Claims priority, application Great Britain Oct. 31, 1956 3 Claims. (Cl. 16-52) This invention relates to door-operating appliances and is concerned with a spring door closer having a hydraulic check.

In a conventional form of spring door closer, a shaft is rotatable against spring pressure and the hydraulic check includes a piston slidable within a cylinder. The use of the piston involves the conversion of the rotary motion of the shaft into the linear motion of the piston.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved form of hydraulic check in a spring door closer.

According to the present invention, a vane is fitted to the rotatable shaft of a spring door closer to provide a hydraulic check.

The vane may divide a chamber in which it is disposed into two compartments, means being provided to permit owof uid in the chamber between the two compartments when the vane moves on rotation of the shaft. The aforementioned means may take the form of a valvecontrolled passage through the shaft, providing communication between opposite sides of the vane.

The passage may be provided with a single movable valve member, which permits relatively free ow of fluid through the passage when the door is opening, but offers a predetermined resistance to ow when the door is clos- Ving. The setting of the valve member is preferably adjustable.

Preferably a longitudinal bore in the shaft includes two reduced diameter portions, the larger Vof which provides a seat and the smaller of which provides a guide for the valve member controlling the passage.

The spring of the door closer may be a helical torsion spring having either a three-dimensional or two-dimensional (i.e. clock-type) helix. In the case of athreedimensional torsion spring, one end of the spring maybe fixed to a collar splined to the shaft. The splined connection permits adjustment of the spring tension during assembly of the door closer.

The spring may be housed in a chamber which is separated from the vane chamber by means of a diaphragm, one or more springless recuperation valves being incorporated in the diaphragm to eliminate the formation of a partial vacuum on either side of the vane.

The diaphragmmay be provided with a central aperture which is flanged to provide a bearing for the shaft. The lower end of the spring may be anchored to the projecting tongue of a ring recessed within the diaphragm.

The springless recuperation valves may be located in recesses in the diaphragm to prevent accidental sealing of the valves bythe spring.

If desired, the door closer may be provided with an anti-slam device associated with the adjustment means for the valve member which controls flow of fluid through the passage in the shaft.

In order to facilitate the xing of the door closer to a door, the door may be provided with a back plate and the door closer adapted to be a dovetail fit into the back plate.

rI'hat end of the rotatable shaft which is the upper end when the door closer is fixed to the door may be con nected to the door frame by means of ya linkage which includes an arm splined to the shaft. The splined connection permits adjustment of the spring tension when the door closer is fixed to the door. The term splined con- ICC nection is intended to imply a splined connection in which the arm is a sliding fit on the shaft.

The invention will now be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional side elevation of a door closer according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a sectional plan view taken along the line II-II of FIG. l, and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional side elevation corresponding to FIG. 1 and showing a modification of the construction of FIGS. 1 and 2,

FIG. 4 is a detail of a springless recuperation valve on an enlarged scale,

FIG. 5 is an under-plan view corresponding to FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a sectional side elevation of an alternative form of door closer according to the invention,

FIG. `7 is a section taken along the line VII-VII of FIG.` 6,`

FIG. 8 is `a. section taken along the line VIII-VIII of FIG. 6, g

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary plan View of the door closet shown in FIG. 6, and

FIG. l0 is a rear elevation of the door closer shown in FIG. 6.

In the drawings, like numbers refer to like parts.

In FIGS. l and 2, a hollow shaft 4 is rotatably mounted in bearings 5a, 6a of a door closer casing 5 and a casing insert 6 respectively. The bottom region of the casing 5 will be seen to be thickened, and this thickened region is provided with a centrally located, elongated blind bore which forms -a close t around the lower end of the shaft 4 and which constitutes the bearing 5a. An arm 7 which at one end is enlarged to provide a cap for casing 5 has a substantially central apertured bushing 7b in said cap, the bushing 7b and the cap being radially bored to receive a spring loaded plunger 9 which extends through said bushing. The inner periphery of the bushing 7b is provided with longitudinally directed splines adapted to engage with co-operating splines 8 of the shaft 4, whereby the arm 7 is engaged on the shaft 4 in a rotatably fixed but longitudinally -slidable manner. Longitudinal movement of the arm 7 relative to the shaft 4 is restricted by sliding abutment with the casing 5 and insert 6, which are threadedly interengaged, and by the provision of the spring loaded plunger 9 which engages in a groove 4a in shaft 4 to locate the arm upon the shaft. A spring collar 10 is internally splined to enable it to engage as a press fit uponV co-operating splines 11 of the shaft 4 and to hold down a helical torsion spring 12. One end of spring 12 is anchored to spring collar 1t) and tle other end of spring 12 engages over a ring 13 secured to a diaphragm 14 mounted transversely across the casing 5. The ring 13 has an annularly outer portion of reduced thickness constituting a step 13a and the step 13a is interrupted to define therein, a gap 13b into which the said other end of the spring 12 passes to enable it to hook around `the step 13a. Diaphragm 14 is provided with a recess 14a below and extending beyond the ends of the gap in the step 13a to accommodate the end of spring 12 which hooks round step 13a.

A vane 15 has a hub portion 15a which is internally splined for engagement with splines 16 of the shaft 4 which permit said vane to be a press fit. upon the shaft 4, the vane 15 `being disposed within a vane chamber formed by casing 5 and diaphragm 14.4 Bores 17 arranged at opposite sides of the vane 15 (FIG. 2) pass through the hub portion 15a into the hollow interior of shaft 4. In FIG. 1, the chain dotted lines 18 indicate the relative levels of bores 17, there being one bore 17 above and one below a conical seating surface 19a of a valve member 19 which is urged by means of a spring 3 19b towards a seat 4b in the hollow interior of shaft 4. An adjusting screw 20, in threaded engagement with the hollow interior of shaft 4 contacts the smaller diameter end of conical surface 19a of valve member 19. AA stop 21 for the vane is fixed within the vane chamber by means of a peg 22. Vane 15 and stop Z1 are provided with sealing strips 23 and 23a of oil-resistant rubber adapted respectively to seal the free end of the Vane 15 relative to the'wall of the vane chamber, and to seal the inner end of the stop 21 relative to the hub 15a of the vane.

A downwardly tapered tongue 5b (FIG. 2) extending from casing 5, lits within a correspondingly tapered groove in a base plate 24, provided with screw holes 24a for receiving conventional fastening screws by means of which said plate 24 may be screwed to a door (not shown). This method of mounting permits prior xing of the plate 24 to the door, allowing simple subsequent fixing of the door closer itself. To prevent any possibility of the casing 5 rising out of the plate 24, a retaining strip 3@ held by screws (not shown) is fitted as a last operation. An arm 25 of adjustable length is pivotally connected at one end to the arm 7 and at the other end to a fitting 26, secured to the door framework (not shown). In FIG. 2, arms 7 and 25 are shown in the positions which they occupy when the door is in its open position.

FIG. 3 shows a construction of an adjusting screw which is alternative to the adjusting screw 20 of FIGS. l and 2. In FIG. 3, the adjusting screw is again shown mounted in the hollow interior of shaft 4, but is in two parts, Zilla `and 27, with a spring 28 disposed between the parts; part 2.7 contacting valve member 19 at its end remote from the valve seating spring 19h. In all other respects the embodiment of FIG. 3 isridentical with that of FIGS. l and 2, but the two-part construction of the adjusting screw provides an anti-slam facility, as hereinafter more fully described.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, each bore 14b in diaphragm 14 communicates with a wider bore 14C in which a ball 29 is located, the edges of bore 14o being punched in at opposite sides to form inwardly projecting lugs 14d which serve to retain ball Z9.

When the door is being opened, arm 7, shaft 4 and spring `collar 10 rotate together, the latter applying a torsion load to the spring 12. This torsion load is suicient to return the open door to its closed position when the door is released.

The balls 29 are movable to permit the passage of uid through the diaphragm 14 in a downward direction only so as to avoid the formation of apartial vacuum to the rear of the vane when this is rotated. They conditions for the formation of such a partial vacuum arisey if the vane chamber, when the hydraulic medium therein is under pressure as the vane rotates, should lose any of its hydraulic medium as by leakage between the outer periphery of the diaphragm 14 and the casing 5, or between the shaft 4, the vane hub 15a and the inner periphery of the diaphragm 14. Such leakage creates a-n air pocket in the vane chamber, on one or both sides of the vane, so that on a subsequent rotation of the vane, a partial vacuum is set up. The level of fluid within the door closer corresponds to that of the lower endof the spring collar 10.

In operation the rotation of shaft 4 alsol rotates vane 15 causing a flow of iluidv between opposite sides of the vane through the bores 17 and the hollow interior of the shaft 4; In FIG. l, the bores 17 are disposed so that the direction of ilow in the shaft is downwards when the door `is opening and upwards when the door is closing. By rov 4 valve member 19 yields to iiuid flowing downwardly through the shaft while fluid owing upwardly through the shaft is able to pass through the annular clearance between surface 19a and seat 4b. Hence the valve member 19 offers considerable resistance to flow when the door is closing but permits relatively free ow when the door is opening.

The anti-slam device shown in FIG. 3 works as follows. The adjusting screw 20a is rotated so `as to provide a slight annular clearance as aforementioned between conical surface 19a of the valve member and the valve seat 4b. Owing to the presence of spring 28, the part 27 of the adjusting screw will yield to pressure exerted upwardly by the valve member 19. VConsequently, any excessive upwardly directed pressure in the hollow interior of the shaft 4; may force valve member 19 upwardly, thus closing or partially closing the annular clear-ance. Hence the upward iliow of fluid is stopped or reduced and the rate of closing of the door is slowed down. Within limits, the greater the load applied to close the door, the slower will be the closing action.

The splined connection 8 permits the relation between the arm 7 and shaft 4 to be varied upon assembly to give pre-loading of the spring 12 to the degree required to overcome varying door weights and latch stiffness.

The alternative construction of door closer shown in FIGS. 6 to 1.0 again has a hollow shaft 4d rotatably journalled within a casing 5c, a 'bearing 6a for the upper end of shaft 4d being provided by an insert 6 threadedly engaged in casing 5c. Rotation of the shaft 4d is effected by an arm 7a, and at the lower end of shaft 4d is a vane 15 disposed within a vane chamber defined between the casing 5c. and a diaphragm 114 mounted transversely therein. A stop 21 is arranged in the vane chamber, and

the vane is normally urged against the stop 21 by means of a helical torsion spring 12, one end of which is secured to a spring collar 10 adapted for press tting on to the shaft 4d to engage with splines 11 thereof in order to render the collar rotatably xed relative to the shaft. The door closer as thus far described is therefore identical with that of FIGS. l and 2, and further has two radial bores 17 formed in the hub 15a of the vane 15 to pass into the hollow interior of shaft 4d, and opening on opposite sides of the vane, the bores 17' being situated at different levels 18 of the hub 15a so that on movement of vane 15 within the vane chamber, fluid ow takes place through` the bores 17 and shaft interior, from one side of the vane to the other side thereof. In FIGS. 6 to 10, however, the door closer is modified by the provision ofV a central aperture in the diaphragm 114 circumscribed by an upstanding annular flange 114e serving as a lower bearing for the rotatablel shaft 4d. Axial movement between the shaft 4d and the arm 7a is prevented by means of a locating ring 311 in threaded engagement with the shaft 4d. It will be appreciated that if it is desired to adjust the tension `of the spring 12 when the door closer is fixed to the door, the locating ring 3'1 must rst be removed to enable arm 7a to be slid off shaft 4d and reset in a new position to give a greater or lesser amount of initial tension to the spring 12. The lower end of the shaft 4d abuts against a disc 32 of oil-resistant rubber, recessed into the casing 5c.

A- spring loadedv conical valve member 33 is provided withV an extension 33a which is slidable 4Within a reduced diameter portion 4c of the bore in the shaft 4d. The free end of the extension 33a abuts an adjusting screw V34, in threaded engagement withv the hollow interior of the shaft 4d.

An upwardly projecting annular rim 114)c of diaphragm 114 concentrically surrounds the flange 114e and delines a recess in the diaphragm in which la ring 35 is located. Ring 35 is provided with a radially directed tongue 35a whichV projects through a gap in the rim 114i. The lower end of spring 12 hooks round tongue 35a and rotation of the ring is prevented since the tongue abuts the rim 1141 at the gap therein. The rim 114i is formed with inwardly turned over regions 114g to prevent vertical movement of the ring 35.

The recuperation valves 11d-b are identical to the corresponding valves Mb employed in FIGS. 1 to 5 and are located in recesses 114k in the diaphragm 114.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the door closer of FIGS. 6 to 10 operates in a manner similar to that of the door closer of FIGS. l to 5 described above and hence no detailed description of the operation of the door closer lof FIGS. 6 to l0 is given here.

I claim:

K1. In a spring door closer, a casing, a stationary diaphragm fitted within said casing and dividing said casing into a spring chamber and a vane chamber, said diaphragm being provided with a central aperture, an upstanding annular flange surrounding said central aperture, a shaft rotatably mounted in said casing and passing through said central aperture with said ange forming a vbearing for said shaft, an upstanding annular projection on said diaphragm concentrically surrounding said flange and co-operating therewith to define a recess in said diaphragm, a ring seated within said recess, said ring having a radially projecting tongue, said annular projection having a gap therein and said tongue projecting into said gap, a helical torsion spring surrounding and extending along said shaft and disposed within said spring chamber, one end of said spring being connected to the spring chamber end of said shaft and the other end of said spring being anchored to said projecting tongue, a vane fitted to said shaft within said vane chamber, a stop arranged in said chamber, said stop constituting a partition and co-operating with said vane to divide said vane chamber into two compartments, said shaft being formed with a passage to provide communication between opposite sides of the vane, a valve member arranged within said passage, resilient means urging said valve member in one direction along said passage to offer a predetermined resistance to iiow of fluid through the passage in said one direction and to permit relatively free ow of fluid through the passage in the opposite direction, and valve means in said diaphragm to permit the leakage of fluid therethrough for avoiding the formation of a partial vacuum to the rear of the vane when said vane is rotated away from said valve means.

2. In a spring door closer, a casing, a stationary diaphragm fitted within said casing and dividing said casing into a spring chamber and a vane chamber, said diaphragm being provided with a central aperture, an upstanding annular ange surrounding said central aperture, a shaft rotatably mounted in said casing and passing through said central aperture with said flange forming a bearing for said shaft, an upstanding annular projection on said diaphragm concentrically surrounding said iiange and co-operating therewith to define a recess in said diaphragm, a ring seated within said recess, said ring having a radially projecting tongue, said annular projection having a gap therein and said tongue projecting into said gap, a helical torsion spring surrounding and extending along said shaft and disposed within said spring chamber, one end of said spring being connected to the spring chamber end of said shaft and the other end of said spring being anchored to said projecting tongue, a vane fitted to said shaft within said vane chamber, a stop arranged in said chamber, said stop constituting a partition and co-operating with said vane to divide said vane chamber into two compartments, said shaft being formed, with a passage to provide communication between opposite sides of the vane, a valve member arranged within said passage, resilient means urging said Valve member in one direction along said passage to offer a predetermined resistance to flow of iiuid through the passage in said one direction and to permit relatively free ow of fluid through the passage in the opposite direction, said diaphragm being formed with a pair of bores for respectively placing said compartments in communication with said spring chamber, a recuperation valve member located in each of said bores to permit the leakage of fluid from said spring chamber through said bore for avoiding the formation of a partial vacuum in the compartment with which said bore communicates when said vane is rotated in a direction such as to enlarge said compartment, and means to prevent accidental sealing of the bores by the adjacent end of the spring.

3. In a spring door closer, a casing, a stationary diaphragm fitted within said casing and dividing said casing into a spring chamber and a vane chamber, a shaft rotatably mounted in said casing and passing through said diaphragm into both of said chambers, a collar nonrotatably secured to the spring chamber end of said shaft, said diaphragm having a recess defined therein and surrounding said shaft, a ring seated Within said recess, a radially projecting tongue on said ring, a helical torsion spring surrounding and extending along said shaft and `disposed within said spring chamber, lone end of said spring being anchored to said collar and the other end of said spring being anchored around said projecting tongue, a vane fitted to said shaft within said vane chamber, a stop arranged in said chamber, ysaid stop constituting a partition and co-operating with said vane to divide said vane chamber into two compartments, said shaft being formed with Ia passage to provide communication between opposite sides of the vane, a valve member arranged within said passage, resilient means urging said valve member in one direction along said passage -to offer a predetermined resistance to flow of iuid through the passage in said one direction' and to permit relatively free ow of ,uid through the passage in the opposite direction, and valve means in said diaphragm to permit the leakage of iiuid therethrough for avoiding the formation of a partial vacuum to the rear of the vane when said vane is rotated away from said valve means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 711,685 Watt Oct. 21, 1902 l711,686 Watt Oct. 21, 1902 1,970,008 Larson Aug. 14, 1934 2,027,423 Gardiner Ian. 14, 1936 2,133,614 Gardiner Oct. 18, 1938 2,707,796 Hawks May 10, 1955 

